Shabbat Bo 5775: Exodus, Movement of the People

It is no coincidence that the first mitzvot addressed to Israel come in Shmot, Chapter 12, the same chapter in which the exodus officially begins. Verse 28 says that Israel, “walked and performed as the Lord had commanded to Moses and Aaron; so they did.” Early Midrashim note the doubling of verbs and say that the Israelites accepted God’s commands both in principle and in practice, and thus the Exodus journey became not just a mass emigration, but a spiritual migration, with each footstep taking them closer to God. The chapter ends by repeating the expression that Israel did all that God had commanded to Moses and Aaron, and then states that “on this very day” the Lord took Israel out, in all its hosts, from the land of Egypt. Chapter 12 is full of mitzvot, from the consecration of the first month to the many mitzvot around Passover, to the redemption of first born and even the first sources of tefillin. The physical journey of leaving Egypt is accompanied by symbolic ritual gestures—mitzvot—which give meaning to the experience and ensure that it is preserved in memory.

The Torah has waited so long before unveiling the mitzvot (circumcision notwithstanding) that surely it could have waited a bit longer until Mt. Sinai. It does wait to have God command Israel directly, without the intermediaries of Moses and Aaron, but even then, the mitzvot are all linked to the Exodus. Read ahead to chapter 20, if you like. How does God introduce the Decalogue? I am the Lord, Creator of the World? No—I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt. As Ramban notes, the Exodus is the centerpiece of Jewish theology and of the realm of mitzvot. God is not just an abstract principle, a first cause from whose existence all else flows, but a providential deity who notices human actions, and acts in response to them. As Moshe Halbertal explains in his book on Maimonides, Rambam and Ramban part company here (as in so many other places), with Rambam cautiously moving Jewish theology away from God as an active figure in history.

On a philosophical level, I am with Rambam—my abstract concept of God is of the universal life force that allows for all of existence. But I find providence in the transformative power of human action inspired by religious faith. When we act righteously, we create a realm of goodness. And because Judaism systematically guides our behavior, it teaches us that through thoughtful, deliberative and self-sacrificing behavior we can change our lives and also our history. It is indeed miraculous when humans set aside their immediate comfort for the sake of abstract values such as justice, compassion and holiness. God acts through us, liberating us from enslavements both political and spiritual. The mitzvot were the key to Israel’s exodus from slavery back then, and they remain the centerpiece of any Jewish attempt to live with God and godliness today.

The message above may sound completely conventional, but it is no longer intuitive in contemporary Judaism. Commandments have become suggestions, and self-sacrifice has become tainted as zealotry. But if we do not embrace the commandments as binding, then little remains to bind us to God and each other in sacred covenant. The mitzvot are not possible unless one is ready to leave Mitzrayim. When we accept and perform them each day, we may truly see ourselves as if we have left the house of bondage and accepted responsibility for our spiritual freedom.